


so shed your skin and let's get started

by iphigenias



Series: shadowhunters post-ep fics [4]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 3x05 promo, Alec loves a good metaphor, Declarations Of Love, M/M, Moving In Together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-12
Updated: 2018-04-12
Packaged: 2019-04-21 18:19:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14290638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iphigenias/pseuds/iphigenias
Summary: “Magnus,you’remy home. And I want to be with you. Always.”I can’t live without you, he doesn’t say, because Magnus already knows, knows his heart backwards and forwards and inside-out and upside-down and better than anyone else, better than Alec knows it himself.





	so shed your skin and let's get started

**Author's Note:**

> literally the most self-indulgent thing i have ever written. i just wanted a fluffy malec moving in together fic minus any and all edom angst, and here we are. title is from "throw your arms around me"
> 
> (this isn't technically a post-ep fic as it's based on the 3x05 promo but i thought i'd put it in the series for the sake of convenience)

“What if I moved in?”

Alec’s heart is beating nervously fast in his chest. Truth be told, he’s been thinking about this for a while. Ever since that night outside the Hunter’s Moon, the lights like so many multi-coloured stars glowing softly and joyfully above them. _I don’t think I can live without you_ , Alec had said. It was the truth, stripped raw and bare from that secret place inside of him, the place he had only ever shown to Magnus—it was always only ever Magnus, after all.

Magnus who is now looking at him wide-eyed, like Alec’s words are an unwelcome surprise. Alec’s stomach swoops. “Bad idea?”

“What? No, no,” Magnus rushes to say, hands reaching out to Alec, always reaching, crossing so easily that distance which Alec places between himself and everyone else in the world. His hands, warm and familiar, weighed down like anchors by his rings, rest comfortably on Alec’s biceps. Like they belong there. Like all of Alec was made to hold all of Magnus, always. The hands slide down his arms until they reach Alec’s hands, intertwining their fingers. Alec’s hands were made for this, too.

“It’s just,” Magnus starts to say, and to anyone else he would sound normal, but Alec catches the undertones of nervousness in his voice, and it does nothing to settle his stomach. “You’re the head of the Institute. You should—you should be there, with your people. _For_ your people. And I…” Magnus shifts his gaze away for a moment, uncharacteristically shy. Alec wants to reach out, rest his hand against Magnus’ cheek, turn it back to face him so he can look in those eyes forever. But their hands are still linked, and there is no fibre in Alec’s being which could compel him to break them. “I’m a warlock. Not even the High Warlock anymore, just… me. I don’t want it to seem like I’m meddling with shadowhunter affairs. It could damage your reputation immensely, Alexander.”

Alec’s breath, which he didn’t even realise he was holding, comes rushing out all at once, a heaving sigh that makes his set shoulders relax. He squeezes Magnus’ hands in his own. “Magnus, you have every right to meddle in your boyfriend’s affairs,” he says softly. “It doesn’t matter who I am. The Institute… as long as I’ve lived there, it’s never felt like home. But you do.” Finally, reluctantly, Alec breaks their grip and brings his hands up to cradle Magnus’ face. They fit perfectly around the curve of his jaw, puzzle pieces locking together to form a whole from the sum of its parts. “Magnus, _you’re_ my home. And I want to be with you. Always.” _I can’t live without you_ , he doesn’t say, because Magnus already knows, knows his heart backwards and forwards and inside-out and upside-down and better than anyone else, better than Alec knows it himself.

Magnus’ golden eyes are wet. Alec can’t remember him dropping his glamour but he loves it, loves the quiet space they always create between the two of them, where glamours aren’t necessary, politics are forgotten, where heartbeats slow and beat in unison. “Twist my arm,” he finally says, quiet, soft, and there’s a small smile on his lips Alec wants to kiss into a grin. He does.

“But only if you want to,” he says when they break apart, foreheads touching, Alec’s hands somehow having found their way to Magnus’ waist, Magnus’ own arms looped around his neck. Like vines tangling together. Like roots growing into each other, pushing down deep into the soil, grounding them both. “If you want your space, I understand.”

“Alexander,” Magnus says, and as soft as his voice is it sounds exasperated too. “I want everything with you. And that includes moving in together. So don’t think for a moment that my answer is anything but yes.”

Alec laughs. His heart feels light. Magnus’ hand moves around to rest against the deflect rune on his neck, his thumb brushing down beneath Alec’s shirt to run shiveringly, achingly, along Alec’s collarbone. “You’re sure?” he asks, because he needs to hear Magnus say it again, say it over and over until it becomes etched into his skin, carved deep into his bones.

Magnus smiles, the glitter around his eyes catching the sunlight and dazzling Alec like a small sun collapsing into supernova. “Yes, Alexander,” he says. “I want you to move in with me. I want to wake up beside you every morning. I want to fall asleep in your arms every night. I want you to cook me breakfast, I want to portal us all over the world for dinner. I want your clothes in my wardrobe, your boots by the door, your books all over the coffee table and your smile everywhere I go, every corner I turn around.” His hands find their way to Alec’s biceps once again. “I want _you_ , Alexander. I want every part of you, here, with me.” He smiles at Alec, who is breathless. “How was that?”

“You—I—” Alec’s words fail him. He knows Magnus loves him. It is one of the deep and abiding truths in his life. _I can’t do anything without thinking of you_. But to hear him say it like that—to articulate his desires so eloquently, so elegantly, the way Magnus does everything in his life—to know that Magnus loves every atom inside of him, and not only that but _wants_ every atom too, _wants_ in the same way Alec so desperately craves—to know that this, them, might actually be forever—it’s overwhelming. Encompassing. Devouring. It’s everything Alec’s ever wanted, everything he never even knew he wanted until he had it. Alec looks at Magnus, _looks_ at him, and never wants to look away. He wants to kiss Magnus and press a piece of himself underneath Magnus’ skin. He wants to dig inside his own chest and pull out his heart and offer it to Magnus, free and forever. He wants—

“You keep looking at me like that I might just have to cancel my afternoon client,” Magnus says, eyebrows raised, and Alec swallows, deep. Magnus’ eyes track the movement of his throat.

“I’m sorry,” Alec says at last. “I just love you. So much.”

Magnus smiles, and it is the earth splitting open down to its core. “I love you too,” he says simply, easily, gently, softly, achingly. Alec takes the words and tucks them between his ribs, inside his heart.

“I love you, I love you, I love you,” he says, whispering each word on a kiss to Magnus’ lips, his jaw, his neck, his collarbone, lower, lower. Magnus’ fingers clutch at his hair as Alec takes him into his mouth, slow at first, easing into the rhythm he knows drives Magnus crazy. It’s broad daylight, and Magnus’ curtains are open. Alec should feel open, raw and exposed. But Magnus gasping his name, two syllables, too far gone to whisper out _Alexander_ , shaking beneath Alec’s touch—it drives all thoughts of self-consciousness from Alec’s mind, like Magnus always seems to do. Alec loves him for it. He loves every atom, every inch, every piece of wayward glitter that has found its way across Magnus’ skin. He wants everything of Magnus, everything _with_ Magnus, Magnus whose hips stutter as he lets out a strangled curse, as Alec pulls off and presses gentle kisses into the inside of Magnus’ thigh, his kneecap, his hip, rising to his feet to kiss Magnus on the mouth where he should be kissed, always.

“The best housewarming I’ve ever had,” Magnus murmurs against Alec’s lips. Alec huffs a laugh into their next kiss.

“It better be,” he says. “Or I’d have to fight whoever gave you a better one.”

“Trust me, Alexander,” Magnus says, his eyes tired but bright and golden. “It’s always going to be you.” He pulls away, buttons himself up, and fixes Alec with a smile that would outshine Helen of Troy any day. “Welcome home,” he says, and it feels like a beginning.


End file.
